On May 23, last week, Google began notifying users on Google.com as when the company detected that a users' computers or routers were infected with malware called "DNSChanger"--and directed them to the tools they needed to clean their computer and ensure connectivity. Today, Google said that they have "so far already notified half a million […]

On May 23, last week, Google began notifying users on Google.com as when the company detected that a users' computers or routers were infected with malware called "DNSChanger"--and directed them to the tools they needed to clean their computer and ensure connectivity.

Today, Google said that they have "so far already notified half a million individuals about DNSChanger infections on their devices," posted Eric Davis, Policy Manager, Security and Heather West, Policy Analyst.

Davis notes, that the comapny is also collaborating with the Industry Botnet Group, a group of ISPs, security groups, industry leaders, and law enforcement entities that share expertise and aggregate resources for countering botnets.

"The U.S. Department of Commerce recently highlighted the success of this initiative in bringing together private sector actors to address the issue of botnets. And the White House held an event today applauding the success of industry partnerships in addressing these issues-- recognizing like many in Congress that transparency and information sharing are critical to addressing security risks on the Internet," he said.

"Google is also continuing to address botnet security concerns through the Federal Communications Commission's Communications, Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), which includes participants from both the public and private sectors," he concludes.

In other Google releated news,

the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has once again said that Google "is not doing enough to fight copyright infringement online." But it may be that the RIAA itself is guilty of that charge.

In a series of five "facts," RIAA lays out what amounts to two primary complaints:

Google "places artificial limits on the number of queries that can be made by a copyright owner to identify infringements."

Google "also limits the number of links we can ask them to remove per day."

The RIAA says these limits keep it from finding and requesting removal of piracy-related web pages related to the Billboard Top 10 songs, let alone all pirated material on the web.

"In order to truly address this problem, Google needs to take its commitment to fight piracy more seriously by removing the limits on queries and take downs, by taking down multiple files of the same recording instead of just one when a "representative sample" of infringing files is provided to them, and by establishing meaningful repeat infringer policies.

Clearly the current process is not working. Google is routinely directing people to unlawful sources of content, which is clearly at odds with data that suggests most people rely on search engines to identify trusted websites at the top of search results. If Google truly doesn't want its search results directing people to materials that violate copyright laws, more should be done to address this problem. We look forward to continuing to work with Google and other intermediaries to find better solutions to this problem, and to gain more transparency into the information flows and search rankings," Buckles said.

PageLever in its research studied 500 fan pages with a minimum of 10,000 fans, looking at external referrals from Bing and Google. "Internal Facebook referrals and searches did not play a factor in the data. The overall results show that Google traffic to Facebook pages has dropped 51%. Before the SPYW launch, Google drove 9.25% of the external traffic to Facebook pages. After the SPYW launch, that percentage of Google referrals was down to just 4.52%," reports PageLever (via SEL).

Surprisingly, the numbers were down on Bing as well, dropping 59% year over year.

Google "Search Plus Your World (SPYW)" launched in january this year, is a service that drastically customized search results based on social connections while bolstering visibility of Google+ products.

Deepak Gupta is a IT & Web Consultant. He is the founder and CEO of diTii.com & DIT Technologies, where he's engaged in providing Technology Consultancy, Design and Development of Desktop, Web and Mobile applications using various tools and softwares. Sign-up for the Email for daily updates. Google+ Profile.